Fantasist Neil Gaiman Returns to the Graphic-Novel Series That Made Him Famous

Even without the novels, the children's books, the BBC miniseries (Neverwhere), and the movies-in-development (his Sandman onetime spin-off Death: The High Cost of Living is slated to start production next year), Gaiman still would have had a profound impact on comics, opening the form up to new styles, subjects, and possibilities.

illustration: Bill Sienkiewicz/Courtesy DC Comics

Bill Sienkiewicz's art for "Delirium," a chapter in the latest Sandman installment.

"I remember once ranting [about the state of the comics industry] to Dave Sim, who did Cerebus, and he said, 'So what are you doing about it?' " Gaiman says. "And I thought about it for a minute, and I said, Well, I'm writing good comics. And I'm really pleased I did, because now I can look at those 10 volumes of Sandman and go, Look, this was something that meant something."